The tarnished Golden part of the Brooklyn GOP and the 2013 candidates that it selected and pushed forward into the fray have been found wanting in every facet, and from every aspect and vantage
For everybody else who wanted any sort of victory for the Brooklyn GOP and its candidates in 2013 — look in some parallel universe — run a different program in the Matrix — roll back the clocks and calendars to happier times — or do something else equally out-of-the-box that would require large dollops of science fiction and fantasy
[This post has been written with only partial, though substantial, election results on all of the races discussed. The numerical values will be recomputed and revised, where necessary and/or appropriate]
It is now obvious that the real big loser of the NYC Primary on September 9, 2013 was Joe Lhota — however, it took until November 5, 2013 for him and his team of insiders to experience the full impact of their pyrrhic primary victory over John Catsimatidis. Yes, Lhota is a bigger loser than Anthony Weiner; yes a bigger loser than Elliot Spitzer — Either one of those guys can probably get a talk show if they wanted it; for Joe Lhota, probably not.
His total of about 24% of the vote on the Republican and Conservative lines is consistent with the historically low numbers that candidates who run for mayor on both the Republican and Conservative lines have usually obtained. For a fully contested race it was the worst since 1969 (in that election John Marchi in a three-way race received 542,411 votes and 22.7% on the GOP and Conservative Party Lines, when Mayor Lindsay got 42% on the Liberal and other lines, and Mario Procaccino, a conservative type Democrat obtained 36% on the Democrat and other lines).
John Burnett fared even worse than Lhota did, getting under 20% of the vote in his race for Comptroller.
In the race for Brooklyn DA, incumbent DA Charles “Joe” Hynes lost his re-election bid on the Republican and Conservative Party lines. His numbers turned out to be lower than even the sternest critics of his renewed run on the GOP and Conservative Party lines had predicted. With respect to our prediction here on this blog, Hynes mostly did lead the GOP ticket in Brooklyn, even though he received under 26% of the total votes for Brooklyn DA. Even so, he garnered a higher percentage than all but three other GOP candidates in Brooklyn, with only three of the Brooklyn GOP City Council candidates that out-polled him.
As a group, the Brooklyn GOP City Council candidates didn’t do as well as expected, either. The individual results are listed, as follows:
36th Counc Dist: Veronica Thompson
under 3% - Loss
43rd Counc Dist: John Quaglione
under 37% - “
44th Counc Dist: Joseph Hayon
under 20% - “
46th Counc Dist: Anthony Testaverde
under 27% - “
47th Counc Dist: Andy Sullivan
under 28% - “
48th Counc Dist: David Storobin
under 40% - “
From the look of all of the numbers above for all of the municipal offices mentioned above, 2013 was not a banner year for the Kings County Republican Party. However, it must be remembered that any kind of front-loaded top shelf operation for any candidate supported by the Brooklyn GOP was made impossible by the insurgency ignited by State Senator Martin Golden and carried to completion by the so called “Republicans for Change,” who were lined up behind Timothy Cochrane.
It should also be noted that the performances of the candidates supporting and supported by the “Republicans for Change” faction were especially problematic. Those candidates would include John Quaglione, David Storobin and Anthony Testaverde. When one additionally looks at the election day results for Joe Lhota and DA Hynes, both of whom were focal candidates, visibly and closely associated with Marty Golden and the “Republicans for Change” faction, the complete and signal failure of the campaigns fostered by the Golden-related faction of the Brooklyn GOP is completely manifest.
The failures of most of these individual campaigns might have been attributable to the candidates having been damaged fruit from the outset, faulty campaign strategy, tactics and execution, and profound non-support by larger organizations. However, far more burdensome for these campaigns was the negativity and inability of most of the Golden-supported candidates to reintegrate with their colleagues in the mainstream Brooklyn GOP after the 2013 GOP Primary had passed.
That prolonged primary hangover was no doubt directly attributable to the failed attempt of the “Republicans for Change" to pull a belated coup at the GOP County convention in the latter days of September; the flawed conception and execution of which was further exacerbated by an ill-advised lawsuit against the mainstream GOP in October 2013.
As an end-note to all that happened from the early bomb-throwing by Golden against Chairman Craig Eaton through Election Day on November 5th, it should be noted that the most likely consequence of the particular abysmal showings of the “Republicans for Change” candidates is the likelihood of the complete demise of that failed Golden-generated enterprise, as well as the sun-setting on those of its candidates that fail to reintegrate with the mainstream in a suitable and timely fashion.
Going forward, if the Brooklyn GOP wants to serve its Republican registrants and voters, it needs to think well “outside of the box.” The mainstream GOP needs to use this 2013 fiasco as a big stick to beat whatever part of the 2013 “old hands insurgency" that might keep plugging along into the 2014 election cycle. Eaton, Gallo and company need to use all of this as a recruiting tool against all “former establishment challengers” that don’t make amends for what they did to everybody else in 2013.
